Profession and income affect IVF success

Female teachers are more likely to conceive during IVF treatment than their peers of a similar age in similarly paid professions, research shows.

The study of more than 1000 women undergoing IVF treatment in the USA also showed that those employed in investment banking and engineering had the worst chances of successful treatment. This was despite another finding that those earning $99,000 (£81,000) or more likely to succeed with IVF than those earning under this figure.

“What’s ironic is that investment banks have the most generous fertility perks, but that the culture very much works against all of that,” said Jake Anderson-Bialis, the founder of FertilityIQ, which conducted the research.

“IVF is a corridor that’s incredibly fragile, where timing is down to the minute and patients are responsible for an enormous amount of their own care. If you are hours too early or too late, you can lose your cycle,” he added.

Writing in a commentary for Fortune.com, Anderson-Bialis believes greater flexibility with regards to time management at work and access to a bigger support network could be behind the findings.

He also suggests that jobs that take a psychic toll on women in fertility treatment – either due to the anxiety of hiding the process from co-workers or simply the demands of the roll – can also affect results.

Follow-up interviews with the patients in the study who were teachers revealed that most of them underwent their fertility treatment during the long summer break. In contrast, the women who worked at banks reported not being allowed to go to fertility appointments during work hours.

The findings were results presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual congress.